Near-infrared spectroscopy can detect brain activity during a color-word matching Stroop task in an event-related design

Brai nactivit ycanbemonitore dnon-invasivel ybynear-infrare dspectroscop y(NIRS) ,whic hhas severa ladvantage sincompariso nwit hothe rimagin gmethods ,suc hasflexibility ,portability ,low cost an dbiochemica lspecificity .Moreover ,patient san dchildre ncanberepetitivel yexamined .Therefore ,the objectiv eofthestud ywa stotes tthefeasibilit yofNIR Sfortheevent-relate dapproac hinfunctiona lbrain activatio nstudie swit hcognitiv eparadigms .Thus ,change sintheconcentratio nofoxy- ,deoxy- ,an dtotal hemoglobi nwer emeasure d byNIR Sin14health ysubject swhil eperformin ga color–wor d matching Stroo p tas k in an event-relate d design .Th ehemodynami crespons e(increas ein theconcentratio n of oxy-/tota lhemoglobi n an d decreas ein theconcentratio n ofdeoxy-hemoglobin )wa sstronge rduring incongruen tcompare dtocongruen tan dneutra ltrial softheStroo ptas kinthelatera lprefronta lcortex bilaterally .Thi sstronge rhemodynami crespons ewa sinterprete dasa stronge rbrai nactivatio nduring incongruen ttrial softheStroo ptask ,du etointerference .A ne w metho dforNIR Sdat aevaluatio nthat enable stheanalysi softhehemodynami crespons etoeac hsingl etria lisintroduced .Eac hhemodynamic respons ewa scharacterize dbytheparameter sgain ,lagan ddispersio nofa Gaussia nfunctio nfitte dby nonlinea rregression .Specifi cdifference sbetwee ntheincongruen tan dneutra lconditio nwer efoun dfor gai nan dlag .Further ,thes eparameter swer ecorrelate dwit hthebehaviora lperformance .Inconclusion, brai nactivit yma ybestudie d byNIR Susin gcognitiv estimul iinanevent-relate d design

The metaphysics of mental files

There is much to be said for a diachronic or interpersonal individuation of singular modes of presentation (MOPs) in terms of a criterion of epistemic transparency between thought tokens. This way of individuating MOPs has been discussed recently within the mental files framework, though the issues discussed here arise for all theories that individuate MOPs in terms of relations among tokens. All such theories face objections concerning apparent failures of the transitivity of the ‘same MOP’ relation. For mental files, these transitivity failures most obviously occur because mental files can merge or undergo fission. In this paper I argue that this problem is easily resolved once mental files are properly construed as continuants, whose metaphysics is analogous to that of persons or physical objects. All continuants can undergo fission or fusion, leading to similar transitivity problems, but there are well-established theories of persistence that accommodate this. I suggest that, in particular, the stage theory best suits the purposes of a continuant theory of MOPs.PostprintPeer reviewe

Capgras delusion in posterior cortical atrophy: A quantitative multimodal imaging single case study

Although Alzheimer's disease presents homogeneous histopathology, it causes several clinical phenotypes depending on brain regions involved. Beside the most abundant memory variant, several atypical variants exist. Among them posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is associated with severe visuospatial/visuoperceptual deficits in the absence of significant primary ocular disease. Here, we report for the first time a case of Capgras delusion-a delusional misidentification syndrome, where patients think that familiar persons are replaced by identical "doubles" or an impostor-in a patient with PCA. The 57-year-old female patient was diagnosed with PCA and developed Capgras delusion 8 years after first symptoms. The patient did not recognize her husband, misidentified him as a stranger, and perceived him as a threat. Such misidentifications did not happen for other persons. Events could be interrupted by reassuring the husband's identity by the patient's female friend or children. We applied in-depth multimodal neuroimaging phenotyping and used single-subject voxel-based morphometry to identify atrophy changes specifically related to the development of the Capgras delusion. The latter, based on structural T1 magnetic resonance imaging, revealed progressive gray matter volume decline in occipital and temporoparietal areas, involving more the right than the left hemisphere, especially at the beginning. Correspondingly, the right fusiform gyrus was already affected by atrophy at baseline, whereas the left fusiform gyrus became involved in the further disease course. At baseline, glucose hypometabolism as measured by positron emission tomography (PET) with F18-fluorodesoxyglucose (FDG-PET) was evident in the parietooccipital cortex, more pronounced right-sided, and in the right frontotemporal cortex. Amyloid accumulation as assessed by PET with F18-florbetaben was found in the gray matter of the neocortex indicating underlying Alzheimer's disease. Appearance of the Capgras delusion was related to atrophy in the right posterior cingulate gyrus/precuneus, as well as right middle frontal gyrus/frontal eye field, supporting right frontal areas as particularly relevant for Capgras delusion. Atrophy in these regions respectively might affect the default mode and dorsal attention networks as shown by meta-analytical co-activation and resting state functional connectivity analyses. This case elucidates the brain-behavior relationship in PCA and Capgras delusion

Immorality and Irrationality

Does immorality necessarily involve irrationality? The question is often taken to be among the deepest in moral philosophy. But apparently deep questions sometimes admit of deflationary answers. In this case we can make way for a deflationary answer by appealing to dualism about rationality, according to which there are two fundamentally distinct notions of rationality: structural rationality and substantive rationality. I have defended dualism elsewhere. Here, I’ll argue that it allows us to embrace a sensible – I will not say boring – moderate view about the relationship between immorality and irrationality: roughly, that immorality involves substantive irrationality, but not structural irrationality. I defend this moderate view, and argue that many of the arguments for less moderate views turn either on missing the distinction between substantive and structural rationality, or on misconstruing it

Three-dimensional flux states as a model for the pseudogap phase of transition metal oxides

We propose that the pseudogap state observed in the transition metal oxides can be explained by a three-dimensional flux state, which exhibits spontaneously generated currents in its ground state due to electron-electron correlations. We compare the energy of the flux state to other classes of mean field states, and find that it is stabilized over a wide range of $t$ and $\delta$. The signature of the state will be peaks in the neutron diffraction spectra, the location and intensity of which are presented. The dependence of the pseudogap in the optical conductivity is calculated based on the parameters in the model.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. B on January 8, 200

Different brain areas require different analysis models: fMRI observations in Parkinson’s disease

Foreseeing how specific brain areas respond in time to a stimulus can be a prerequisite for a successfully conceived fMRI experiment. We demonstrate that in medicated Parkinson’s disease patients, putamen's activation peaks around the onset of tapping but does not persist throughout the tapping block, whereas sustained activation is observed in the motor cortex. Consequently, in the widely used tapping paradigm “On vs. Off L-DOPA”, the drug effect remains undetected if statistical analysis apply a block design instead of an event-related one. Ignoring this information can lead to fallacious conclusions which suggests using different models to investigate different brain regions

Advances in the process-related understanding of atmosphere-cryosphere-hydrosphere couplings on the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract HKT-ISTP 2013 B

Multiple ionization and fragmentation dynamics of molecular iodine studied in IR-XUV pump-probe experiments

The ionization and fragmentation dynamics of iodine molecules (I-2) are traced using very intense (similar to 10(14) W cm(-2)) ultra-short (similar to 60 fs) light pulses with 87 eV photons of the Free-electron LASer at Hamburg (FLASH) in combination with a synchronized femtosecond optical laser. Within a pump-probe scheme the IR pulse initiates a molecular fragmentation and then, after an adjustable time delay, the system is exposed to an intense FEL pulse. This way we follow the creation of highly-charged molecular fragments as a function of time, and probe the dynamics of multi-photon absorption during the transition from a molecule to individual atoms

Large-angle production of charged pions by 3 GeV/c - 12 GeV/c protons on carbon, copper and tin targets

A measurement of the double-differential $\pi^{\pm}$ production cross-section in proton--carbon, proton--copper and proton--tin collisions in the range of pion momentum 100 \MeVc \leq p < 800 \MeVc and angle 0.35 \rad \le \theta <2.15 \rad is presented. The data were taken with the HARP detector in the T9 beam line of the CERN PS. The pions were produced by proton beams in a momentum range from 3 \GeVc to 12 \GeVc hitting a target with a thickness of 5% of a nuclear interaction length. The tracking and identification of the produced particles was done using a small-radius cylindrical time projection chamber (TPC) placed in a solenoidal magnet. An elaborate system of detectors in the beam line ensured the identification of the incident particles. Results are shown for the double-differential cross-sections at four incident proton beam momenta (3 \GeVc, 5 \GeVc, 8 \GeVc and 12 \GeVc)